Cold climates heat pump design optimization

Omar Abdelaziz, Bo Shen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Heat pumps provide an efficient heating method; however they suffer from sever capacity and performance degradation at low ambient conditions. This has deterred market penetration in cold climates. There is a continuing effort to find an efficient air source cold climate heat pump that maintains acceptable capacity and performance at low ambient conditions. Systematic optimization techniques provide a reliable approach for the design of such systems. This paper presents a step-by-step approach for the design optimization of cold climate heat pumps. We first start by describing the optimization problem: objective function, constraints, and design space. Then we illustrate how to perform this design optimization using an open source publically available optimization toolbox. The response of the heat pump design was evaluated using a validated component based vapor compression model. This model was treated as a black box model within the optimization framework. Optimum designs for different system configurations are presented. These optimum results were further analyzed to understand the performance tradeoff and selection criteria. The paper ends with a discussion on the use of systematic optimization for the cold climate heat pump design.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationASHRAE Transactions - Papers Presented at the 2012 ASHRAE Winter Conference in Chicago, Illinois
PublisherASHRAE
Pages34-41
Number of pages8
EditionPART 1
ISBN (Print)9781936504220
StatePublished - 2012
Event2012 ASHRAE Winter Conference - Chicago, IL, United States
Duration: Jan 21 2012Jan 25 2012

Publication series

NameASHRAE Transactions
NumberPART 1
Volume118
ISSN (Print)0001-2505

Conference

Conference2012 ASHRAE Winter Conference
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityChicago, IL
Period01/21/1201/25/12

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